Abstract PS3-24: Using big data to gauge effectiveness of breast cancer awareness month

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) has been used for decades to increase awareness and screening for breast cancer but it’s reach and effectiveness is difficult to judge. Using Internet Search Interest (ISI) could allow better evaluation of BCAM effects.Methods: Using Google Trends, we evaluated the ISI of a given term(s) as compared to that cancer’s awareness month. The ISI represents population level Google internet searches relative to the highest number of searches for the United States from 2004-2019 with a max number of 100. The ISI for breast cancer and mammogram in October, which is BCAM, was compared against all other months during this period. Results: The BCAM of October was associated with statistically significant more ISI for breast cancer 77.0 vs. 34.6 (95% CI 69.5-84.5, CI 32.9-35.3, p < 0.0005) as compared to the rest of the year. ISI for mammogram was similar (41.6 vs. 60.2, 95% CI 39.4-43.7, 48.5-71.9, p = 0.007). There was significant differences between the top half of states with Mississippi (100), Delaware (97) and West Virginia (95) having the highest ISI while Nevada (60), Oregon (60) and Utah (57) the lowest (87.6 vs 71.8, 95% CI, 85.5-89.7, 69.0-74.6, p < 0.0005). There was significant differences between the top half of 208 United States metro areas with Rochester MN (100), Greenwood MS (85) and Jackson MS (80) having the highest ISI while Salt Lake City UT (43), Idaho Falls UT (41) and Roanoke VA (40) the lowest (67.5 vs 54.4, 95% CI, 66.4-68.6, 53.4-55.4, p < 0.0005). Conclusion: ISI suggests that BCAM is effective at increasing breast cancer awareness with significant heterogeneity across states and metro areas. This publicly available free tool can be used to assess penetrance of awareness campaigns in a time sensitive manor for future targeting of populations with low breast cancer awareness. Future research is needed to correlate outcomes and ISI. Citation Format: Diamone A. Gathers, Vernon S. Pankratz, Bernard Tawfik. Using big data to gauge effectiveness of breast cancer awareness month [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS3-24.